• jimbo@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The US just passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill a few years ago for those schools and roads that are “falling apart” on top of the ~$125 billion spent annually on transportation and education at the federal level. States and local government pay another ~$700 billion per year for education and ~$350 billion per year on transportation.

    • penquin@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Genuine question, where does this money go? Nothing is improving. People are still in a lot of college debt, college fees are not getting any cheaper, kids still aren’t getting free meals in schools, roads still look like shit all over the country, transportation is still absolute garbage, and don’t get me started on our healthcare system. Again, where does that money go? I really would love to know, not trying to argue, I just want to know.

      • jimbo@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Genuine question, where does this money go? Nothing is improving.

        This is such an obviously untrue statement. Come on. Nothing is improving? I’m sure that it varies wildly by state and who’s running the state, but in my state it seems like there’s constantly roads, highways, bridges, etc being repaved, rebuilt, rerouted, or otherwise improved in some way. I’ve seen a few new schools pop up in my town and they’ve been working on renovating some of the older ones.

        Student loans, school lunches, public transportation, and healthcare are outside the scope of the original post that I was addressing.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Great. That’s about 5 trillion less than we need. The US Army Corps of Engineers estimates we need 3 trillion just for emergency repair projects.

      • rchive@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        In fairness, if you ask people of basically any industry whether their industry needs more money, they will always say yes. Teachers will always say we’re not spending enough on education, police will always say we’re not spending enough on police, business owners will always say we’re not spending enough on them, etc.

      • jimbo@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That seems like a total bullshit number. The closest thing I can find is from 2021 where a report from the Congressional Research Service mentioned a $109 billion project backlog for the Army Corps of Engineers.

        https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11945/2

        Edit:

        OP confused “Army Corps of Engineers” and “American Society of Civil Engineers”. He also exaggerated the bit about “emergency repairs” and neglected to mention that the $3 trillion figure was for spending over the course of a decade.

          • jimbo@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            The price tag to bring it into good repair? Nearly $2.6 trillion over 10 years, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers

            That’s the “American Society of Civil Engineers”, not the “US Army Corps of Engineers” like your original comment said. It’s also not “emergency repairs”. $2.6 trillion is the amount that needs to be paid for over the next 10 years to keep things in “good repair”. The $1.2 trillion takes us a little less than halfway there. Toss in the federal and local budgets for transportation and that’s another $4 trillion over the next 10 years. More than likely more money will be made available in the next decade for additional projects.

            • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              The budget was for a decade of spending. That’s how it got to be over a trillion dollars in the first place. Depending on future appropriations that may or may not occur isn’t policy, it’s just wishing.

              And yeah my memory was a little fuzzy. But it’s not exactly painting a rosy picture.